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This week, Israel officially revealed that Iran now has sufficient enriched uranium for proceeding with the production of at least one atomic bomb. The disclosure came from Brig.Gen. Yossi Bidatz, the commander of the research department in the IDF Intelligence Branch. However, the intelligence officer told the Knesset Foreign affairs & Defense Committee there is still no evidence the Iranian regime has defied the international community and taken the decision to go nuclear. At the same time, the Iranians have developed missiles capable of delivering a nuclear warhead. Also addressing the closed door hearing, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated: ' Israel's paramount security concern is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons'. Analyst David Essing assesses some of the key issues in Israel over the past seven days.

The Iranian nuclear threat was obviously high on the agenda of US President Barack Obama and Israel's Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu when they met in the White House this week. So far, nothing has leaked about what they discussed. However according to the respected Al-Hayat newspaper, published in London, 'informed sources' have said Netanyahu told Sarkozy that Israel did not rule out a military strike against Iran. The French leader stressed the need of pursuing with the current diplomatic effort that has failed to dissuade to halt its uranium enrichment program. Meanwhile, in the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee, the IDF Chief Of Staff, Gen. Ashkenazi made some telling remarks that illuminate the nuclear double bind that confronts Israel at this juncture.

Almost daily this week, there were dramatic developments in Israel's counter-terror campaign. At the center, what Israeli experts call the 'Iranian octopus' of terrorist activities - the Israeli seizure at sea of an innocent- looking merchant ship, the Francop, with a cargo of hundreds tons of weapons and explosives plying its course to Syria and then on to Hezballah in south Lebanon. Secondly, the Palestinians test launched a rocket with a sixty kilometer range that could hit the Tel Aviv metropolitan area of the Jewish state. This did not make any impression in the UN General Assembly. There, delegates of the 118 nations of the pro- Arab majority, took the podium to vilify the Jewish state for defending her citizens against Iranian sponsored terrorism. This time they had a new rallying point - what is viewed in Israel as the infamous Goldstone report that alleged that Israel had committed war crimes during the Cast Lead operation to halt eight years of rocketing of Israeli civilians from Gaza. IsraCast joins the dots of the big picture.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu first caught the eye of the Israeli public when he served as an eloquent Ambassador to the U.N. He has now returned to the General Assembly to make a masterful defense of the Jewish state's struggle for survival, not only in the Middle East, but also in UN bodies that single her for 'special treatment'.

Over the past seventy-hours, a series of events have been swirling around the Middle East and farther afield. U.S. President Barack Obama has in fact launched what amounts to a new initiative. On one hand, Obama's strategy is to try and halt Iran's nuclear weapons drive on one tract, in tandem with an Israeli-Palestinian summit at the UN. IsraCast tries to fit the pieces of Obama's puzzle into place.

If the Obama administration has ruled out pre-emptive military action to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Israel has not followed. Israeli officials have criticized Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comments that the U.S. would supply a 'defensive umbrella' to the Gulf states, if Iran gets the bomb. Israeli officials have said they do not agree to Iran getting the bomb, nor should the Obama administration. IsraCast assesses the latest developments as Russia announces that the nuclear reactor it has sold to Iran at Bushehr will go operational by the end of the year.

U.S. Vice president Joe Biden has done it again; several months ago he warned Israel against attacking Iran's nuclear installations, now he has said it is Israel's sovereign decision. What is behind America's shifting ground on one of the gravest dangers on the international agenda? And how and why are ' moderate' Arab states indicating they are more worried about Iran than Israel? IsraCast assesses recent changes that go far beyond diplomatic nuances.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apparently defused a diplomatic time bomb with U.S. President Barack Obama while the Iranian election reveals how dangerous nuclear weapons would be in the hands of the tyrannical regime of President Ahmadinejad and his ayatollah masters. But Israel's Right-wing Likud prime minister has had to pay the price of accepting a Palestinian state with all that it implies. It appears, as did former Likud leader Ariel Sharon, Netanyahu decided it was in Israel's best interest to ride out the storm of American pressure and in so doing revealed who truly calls the shots in the U.S.-Israeli 'special relationship'.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that U.S. President Barack Obama has sent a senior official to Jerusalem to warn Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu not to surprise the U.S. with an attack on Iran's nuclear installations. The American warning came after a Netanyahu emissary traveled to Washington to meet with National Security Adviser General James Jones and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Meanwhile the IDF's Commander of Intelligence has crossed the technological threshold and could start producing weapons grade uranium, enough for a nuclear bomb within 'a number of months to one year'.

Should Israel go it alone, if its intelligence community discovers that Iran is about to produce a nuclear weapon? What is Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu likely to tell U.S. President Barack when they meet in the White House later this month to discuss Iran and the Palestinians? In an exclusive interview with IsraCast, Moshe Arens a former Israeli defense minister and foreign minister as well as ambassador to Washington, discussed these crucial issues as the U.S. leader prepares to engage Iran in a nuclear dialogue while 'urging 'progress on the ground' along the Palestinian track.

The Israeli-Palestinian peace track will now move to Washington, after American peace envoy concluded his second round of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. It was the first time that Mitchell met with Israel's new Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. The meetings came against the backdrop of the Egyptian uncovering of an Iranian Hezbollah terrorist ring operating Egypt that highlighted the clash between Shiite Iran and the Sunni Arab states. In an interview with Isracast, Zalman Shoval, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington and adviser to Prime minister Netanyahu assessed the outcome of the Mitchell visit.

The uncovering of a Hezbollah terror network operating inside Egypt has exposed Iran's subversive activities inside Arab states - that's the reaction not only in Israel but also in Egypt. Government officials in Cairo were furious with Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It is becoming evident that Ahmadinejad's policy of Realpolitik aimed at Iranian hegemony over the Islamic world will clash with U.S. President Barack Obama's approach of detente.

Terrorists in south Lebanon have again fired Katyusha rockets at Israel, apparently as a warning to Prime Minister designate Binyamin Netanyahu who has declared: "Iran will not be permitted to acquire nuclear weapons!" In another development, more key Iranian military advisers have reportedly been stationed in south Lebanon. These events come against the backdrop of the latest IAEA report that Iran is continuing its nuclear program. Menashe Amir, a leading Israeli expert on Iran, assesses the current situation.

Israel state president Shimon Peres will require his entire political prowess to resolve the disputed outcome of Israel's recent election. No clear winner emerged, although the Likud's Binyamin Netanyahu and Kadima's Tzipi Livni both claim victory. Netanyahu argues that the rig is ht wing bloc of parties took more seats, while Livni contends that she won the more actual votes than did Netanyahu.

The outcome of Israel's general election still hangs in the balance. Only when the last votes of Israeli soldiers and diplomats are tallied will it become clear whether Kadima's Tzipi Livni or the Likud's Binyamin Netanyahu won the most votes. With over 99% of the ballots counted by hand, Livni leads by one Knesset seat, but that could change when the last soldier votes are tallied. Meanwhile both party leaders are claiming victory and already courting the support of Avigdor Lieberman who won third place.

Col. Herzi Halevi, who spent the entire ground war inside the Gaza Strip, has given an inside description of the fighting against Hamas. The officer commanded 2500 Israeli paratroopers who killed an estimated 170 Hamas fighters, while one of his officers died and four other paratroopers were wounded. The colonel is married and has four children. He was interviewed by the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the architect of Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has said the IDF achieved all its operational goals. Barak saw little or no possibility that Israel could be prosecuted internationally over its conduct of the war and quoted from U.S. President Barack Obama.

Israeli leaders hope that Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad will return from Cairo with a serious Egyptian deal for a durable ceasefire that will also prevent future arms smuggling from Egypt into the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip. If so, Israel and Hamas are expected to implement a halt to the current warfare. However an Israeli official told IsraCast: "we hope the devil will not be in the fine print of the arms smuggling arrangement".

"The International Red Cross should be more active and persuasive in getting a visit with abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit" - that's the view of Noam, the father of corporal Shalit who was captured over two years ago by Palestinian terrorists from the Gaza Strip. Since then, in total violation of international law, the Palestinians had not allowed the Red Cross to pay even one visit to Gilad to testify to his treatment and condition. Today Israeli protesters gathered outside an Israeli prison where Red Cross Representatives once again visited captured Palestinian prisoners.

In Cairo, the diplomatic effort continues in the search for a solution to block future arms smuggling from Egyptian controlled Sinai into Gaza. This is a crucial Israeli goal required to prevent the Gaza Strip again becoming a ticking time bomb regardless of the UN resolution calling for an immediate and durable ceasefire. Meanwhile, Israeli is keeping moderate military pressure on Hamas as the terrorists continue to lob rockets at an estimated one-million Israeli civilians in southern Israel. At this juncture the Israeli approach appears to be a blending of military and diplomatic steps to resolve the crisis. If it does not succeed within the coming days all options maybe open.